Charu Mazumdar

One Year of Naxalbari Struggle

Published:Liberation, June 1968Source: Selected Works of Charu MazumdarTranscription: CPI-ML HTML Markup: Nik McDonald for MIA, June 2006Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2006). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

Full one year has passed since the peasant struggle in Naxalbari began. This struggle is different from all other peasant struggles. Where is the difference? Peasants have always struggled against various injustices and oppressions. This is the first time that the peasants have struggled not only for their partial demands but for the seizure of state power. If the Naxalbari peasant struggle has any lesson for us, it is this: militant struggles must be carried on not for land, crops etc., but for the seizure of state power. It is precisely this that gives the Naxalbari struggle its uniqueness. Peasants in different areas must prepare themselves in a manner so as to be able to render ineffective the state apparatus in their respective areas. It is in Naxalbari that this path has been adopted for the first time in the history of peasant struggles in India. In other words, the revolutionary era has been ushered in, and this is the first year of that era. It is for this reason that the revolutionaries of all countries are heartily welcoming the Naxalbari struggle.

India has been turned into a base of imperialism and revisionism, and is acting today as a base of reactionary forces against the people struggling for liberation. That is why the Naxalbari struggle is not merely a national struggle; it is also an international struggle. This struggle is difficult, and the path we have chosen is in no way easy or smooth. The path of revolution is difficult, not smooth or easy, and difficulties, dangers and even retreats will be there. But the peasants who are fired with the spirit of the new internationalism have defied all this and refused to submit. They continue to persist in their path of struggle.

Our experience during the last one year shows that the message of this struggle in a small area has spread to every corner of India. Each one of the existing political parties has opposed the Naxalbari struggle, yet the people are thinking in terms of this struggle and are coming forward to take the path charted by this struggle. The heroic leaders of the Naxalbari struggle are still living and the reactionary government, in spite of all their attempts, has not been able to destroy them. This shows how true are the words of Chairman Mao: "All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying but in reality are not so powerful."

The Chairman has said, "the complete collapse of colonialism, imperialism and all systems of exploitation, and the complete emancipation of all the oppressed peoples and nations of the world are not far off."

Let us march forward to usher in that brilliant sunshine of liberation!